Rep Steve King: GOP Bracing For Bruising Amnesty Battle- 'It Splits Republican Party, Changes Subject From Obamacare'

WND Radio

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, considers 2013 a win for opponents of legalizing illegal aliens in the United States, but he fears a bruising fight in the new year against congressional Democrats and likely his own leadership.

In the wake of President Obama’s 2012 re-election and Democrats retaining the U.S. Senate, comprehensive immigration reform was considered by many to be as good as done. In May, Senate overwhelmingly approved the so-called “Gang of Eight” plan, which conservative critics immediately labeled as amnesty.

For King and other opponents of this approach to immigration reform, their plan was pretty simple.

“We formed a group in my office back in February to do battle with what was emerging from the Senate and what was starting to emerge from the House, against their amnesty legislation that was coming. Our goal was to get through the first month, then the second month and could we get to Memorial Day and then the Fourth of July, then Labor Day? Now could we get all the way to Christmas and we essentially have,” King said.

“I would count that a success looking back, but looking forward we’ve got some real challenges,” said King, who added that he cannot see what good the GOP leadership’s piece-by-piece approach to the legislation would accomplish.

“Explain to me how any of this legislation in the House can pass the House, pass the Senate, get to the president’s desk for his signature that looks anything like something we would support over here,” he said. “Right now, no one’s been able to answer that question.”

King said the Judiciary Committee, of which he is a member, has passed a good domestic enforcement bill, which he says has no chance of passage in the Senate. The panel has also approved a guest-worker program for agricultural workers that King said is tantamount to amnesty for half-a-million people in the U.S. illegally.

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